When you’re a kid, making friends is easy. You don’t even need to say anything to the other person, you can just go up to them, pick up a piece of their lego and start helping them to build a magical castle for unicorns that looks nothing a magical castle for unicorns.
And that’s it, #friends4lyf.
The older you get, the more difficult and less desirable it becomes to make friends; after all there’s only so many unicorn castles you can build in a day and if you go up to somebody in your early thirties and just start playing with their stuff I’m pretty sure you’d get into trouble.
But when you’ve uprooted your life, have left behind your Tier 0s and are moving around from city to city as a Digital Nomad, making friends is actually a pretty important skill to master.
Digital Nomads in Chiang Mai
I booked a one-way flight to Chiang Mai based on zero research and no particular desire to go to Thailand, just a magnetic pull to the East and an opportunity on WorkAway that sounded like a dream.
Turns out it is a dream. My dream. And within a millisecond of arriving in the Northern capital of the Land of Smiles, I knew I wanted to stick around for a little longer than the two months I’d promised.
While my stomach was busy making these pretty big life-steering decisions, my head was completely oblivious to the fact that Chiang Mai happens to be Digital Nomad capital of the world. In fact, at this time, my head didn’t even know what a Digital Nomad was.
Chiang Mai’s DN scene is vast and there’s around 40,000 of us in total from all corners of the globe.
The reasons for its appeal are mainly the low-cost of living, the high-speed internet and the plethora of places to #coffeeshoptosser the shit out of life.
MAKING FRIENDS IN CHIANG MAI
Because of this, Chiang Mai is probably one of the easiest places in the world to make new friends.
It’s the kind of city where you can start chatting to a stranger in a coffee shop without them thinking you’re being weird, creepy, or just trying to distract them while somebody else dips into their backpack and takes their wallet.
And if you don’t have the proverbial bollocks to chat up a new BFF in real life then there are hundreds of groups you can join online to suss out what’s going down.
My favourite is the Chiang Mai Digital Nomads group on Facebook which is always alive with news on events and socials as well as plenty of entertaining conversations to nose in on. It’s from this group that I found the Digital Nomad Coffee Club meet-ups that take place every Friday with around 60-80 like minded souls under one roof.
If you’re looking for more than friends, or friends with benefits, then there’s more than enough going on with the Digital Nomad online dating scene. I just decided that for me, my focus right now is on self, and self needs socials, and socials mean friends. So when I saw Kassy’s message to the group I was all over it.
Hi Chiang Mai humans! So I moved here about a month ago and am still searching for a blogging group. Anyone know where to find one? Or (since the internet has yet to reveal one to me) is anyone interested in forming one? I’ve been to a few digital nomad meetups, and I’ve noticed how empowering it can be to surround yourself with people who are striving to reach similar goals. Shoot me a message if you’re interested!!
CHIANG MAI’S BADASS BLOGGERS
So last Tuesday, four of us Bloggers met at Cube No.7 in Chiang Mai’s downtown hipster area to sit around and talk all things bloggery.
Three incredibly lovely humans with big smiles and open hearts, all with incredibly interesting stories to tell. We took it in turns to introduce ourselves, talk a little bit about our blogs and where we want to go with them.
TRAVEL EXPRESSIONIST
Kassy, writer of Travel Expressionist, a travel blog for creative souls and endless dreamers went first. She’s an ex professional figure skater who was raised in California and with parts of her family hailing from the Ivory Coast, she’s inherited a French tongue so we parled a little français .
She’s beautiful on the inside and out, warm and gregarious with a blog that represents her perfectly through her dreamily written musings and colourful photographs as she wanderlusts her way around the planet.
The Travel Expressionist is a blog that will inspire those who are at home battling with their inner explorer and not quite knowing how to get started. It’s the kind of inspiration that might just make you want to book a one-way ticket to somewhere new…..
KRISTEN YATES
Next up was Kristen Yates, whose mission is to help creative rebels step fully into their purpose, power, and potential through her years and years of learning on psychology and holistic healing.
She’s one of those girls who manages to still look good after bombing around on a moped in thirty degrees heat wearing a helmet – I’d definitely look like Harry from Dumb & Dumber.
Anyway, I love how her writing reads in my head exactly how she talks with capital letters and emojis stressing out her enthusiasm for the topic she’s typing.
My favourite post is A Powerful Life Comes from Powerful Questions, because it’s personal, it’s impassioned, it’s honest and it gives you homework to do at the end.
NEW HUMANS OF AUSTRALIA
Last but definitely not least was Nicola who happens to be the owner of one of my favourite accents on the planet – Australian, so everything she said I loved double.
When she said she had 120 followers I was just about to be my usual awkward self and make some sort of horrendous joke to hide my pity face, but she continued to say thousand. Yes that’s right, 120,000 followers and when you turn to her online pages, it’s absolutely no wonder why.
Inspired by a famous New York project with a similar name, New Humans of Australia is a social media storytelling project which details the stories of refugees and migrants to Australia.
It’s about breaking down the warped views we’ve come to foster about refugees and migrants, often created by poisonous media hype and restoring people’s’ faith in and love for humanity.
Bow down to the badassest blogger I know.
The Girl From Jupiter 27 October 2018
But when you’re all grown up, you begin to realize that THIS person likes to speak badly about other people. And THIS person has little in common with you, so there’s nothing to talk about. And THAT person likes trashy humor and smokes cigarettes, which makes you gag. So guess you can’t be friends. Adult friendships are just weird like that, I guess.
allmyheroesareweirdos 27 October 2018
Of course you don’t have to be friends with everybody! I don’t think adult relationships are actually much different to child relationships to be honest, maybe we just grow to have too much judgement on others and not enough on ourselves the older we get… My new motto is look for the goodness is others and the faults in yourself 🙂
The Girl From Jupiter 27 October 2018
Ah, but I agree. Unfortunately, I am often dismissed for my own faults far before I might get around to judging those of potential friends. Hence, I remain friendless, and happily imperfect.
allmyheroesareweirdos 27 October 2018
Friendless can’t be a good thing though right? Socials are massively important. If you read up on Blue Zones, one of the main contributing factors is having a social life! I always think if there’s anything wrong with the outside world, you have to look inside to fix it…. so maybe just push past the fear of judgements and be the one to make the first move in making friends? I know it can be harder as an adult… I’m starting a yoga class and muay thai class here just so I can meet people. Meetup is a good website too for people with similar interests to you!
The Girl From Jupiter 27 October 2018
I’ve spent the last seven years trying to make a friend or two. But many Meetup events and plenty of effort later, nothing. I had a few acquaintances at my last job, but no one close. I’m friendly, people seem to like me, but nothing develops. Not as easy as building with Legos.
allmyheroesareweirdos 30 October 2018
That’s true, definitely not as easy – but don’t give up! It’s even good building up friends online! My friend in Dubai uses the Bumble app to find friends and that works too! 🙂
Zoe 28 October 2018
Go to ‘Strip – Ministry if Waxing’ chain in Asia Laurie. Not sure if one in Chiang Mai but likely to be. There is one in Bangkok, many in Singapore etc x